By John Tredrea, Special Writer
New Jersey’s agricultural history is a rich one — hence the time-honored name, “The Garden State.”
Now everyone can see that history.
The state Department of Agriculture has just completed a 20-year project to describe and index over 7.000 photographs of New Jersey farming. Two thousand of those pictures, which span the era from the late 19th century to the 1970s, have been scanned for presentation on the Internet.
The unveiling of the archives took place at Howell Living History Farm on June 15.
Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and Secretary of Agriculture Doug Fisher were on hand to co-host the unveiling, at which State Archives staff demonstrated use of the web-based collection.
”The collection richly illustrates all aspects of farming in the Garden State: growing, harvesting and selling produce; agricultural techniques, machinery and equipment; animal husbandry; and the farming community,” said Hopewell Borough resident Joseph Klett, chief of archives, NJ Division of Archives and Records Management.
”Events and celebrations are depicted as well, along with farm associations, state and local government officials, dairy princesses, blueberry queens, 4-H club members and Future Farmers of America. The industry of agriculture is thoroughly represented, from family-owned dairies and farm stands to corporate giants like the Campbell Soup Company,” Mr. Klett explained.
At the June 15 event, Mr. Klett recognized the following, who, he said, “actually did all the work”:
— Vivian Thiele, archivist for database development, whose “determination and creativity brought forth the Archives first searchable, online image bank”;
— John Flood, of the Governor’s Office of Information Technology, “without whose support and ingenuity this endeavor and all of our other online database projects simply would not have worked”;
— Veronica Calder and Lois Bredlow, website and publications archivists, “for their contributions to the elegant and efficient presentation of this resource to the public, both online and here today”;
— And lastly, but perhaps most significantly, Joanne Nestor, “who so painstakingly produced the descriptions and scanning that will benefit the history community and its public in perpetuity. Joanne is both our photographic archivist and the Archives photographer, so she also gets to photo-document today’s celebration.”
The website is designed to allow people to access the data and images in countless ways: by key word, by subject, by location or date, even by the name of the photographer, and by any combination of these data elements.
If one does a Pennington search, one gets 13 results, over two pages. They include a picture of Edward and Robert Buvek of Pennington with their three wethers, being fattened for a 4-H Club projects (August 1945). There also is one from 1949, which shows Hopewell veterinarian Amos Stults testing cows on the Fell Dairy Farm. Dr. Stults, a local legend, passed away earlier this year a few months after reaching his 100th birthday.
”Places like the Howell Farm and living history museums around the nation are making use of this resource to do their work,” Mr. Klett said.
What better place to go public with such an impressive bank of images than Howell Living History Farm, in northwestern Hopewell Township? That farm, an integral part of the Mercer County Park System, has for decades shown visitors how farming was done in bygone eras of the state’s history.
The Howell Living History Farm, on Valley Road, is located in one of the most scenic areas in the western section of the state.
It is an educational facility, open to the public, that preserves and interprets farming life and processes from the 1890-1910 period.
The farm is operated by the Mercer County Park Commission with support from The Friends of Howell Living History Farm. For more information and directions, visit www.howellfarm.org.
